Sketch Diary: Lady of March Part 1

My journey continues this month with Lady of March! I was very pleased with the outcome for Lady of February, which always makes the pressure high for the next piece in any series.

Brainstorming:

As ever, my journey with Lady March begins with research and writing! Wikipedia has excellently sourced articles for mythology of the months of the year that have been my go-to for this project thus far. March is a time of resurrection, renewal, and the bursting forth of new life. It is the time of the Spring Equinox. March also presented a unique challenge because this year’s March happens to include one of the most influential holidays of the Spring season – Easter.

Did you know that in some traditions, Easter eggs represent the empty tomb of Jesus and were painted red to symbolize the blood of Christ? Or that Easter was actually named for a lesser known goddess of Dawn, Ēostre? One of the aspects of creating this series that I’ve really enjoyed has been learning so many things about cultural traditions that I never knew before! For me, Easter has always been about chocolate bunnies and egg hunts from a childhood that didn’t focus much on the religious aspects. My fondest memories are decorating a forsythia ‘easter tree’ with little eggs with my mother.

Easter also provides an interesting challenge because it is a ‘movable feast’, which means that it happens based on a time of year that can change (the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March). I decided that with so much imagery to play with, I would extend the Easter symbolism across both Lady of March and April, which both have the potential to host the Easter celebration.

A peek at a small section of Lady of March’s secret board on Pinterest.

Thumbnailing:Moving on to thumbnailing, I used a light table to trace a printed grid onto my toned paper, which saved me a bit of time (only took me 3 Ladies in to figure this out ha). As I sketched, I referred to poses I had previously found plus poses from my imagination. I also made the decision of which symbols from Easter that I wanted Lady of March to have, mainly easter eggs and the theme of resurrection and baptism/renewal, which the water evokes. However, I didn’t want my eggs to be too stereotypically easter, so I’ve kept them subdued as decorative elements that are naturally placed in the nests. In the final image, I already know I want the eggs to be the striking blue of robin eggs (though I may find a place to add blood red eggs, depending, we’ll see!).

Out of these poses, I was drawn to 4, 5, and 7 because she seems to be more engaged with the water, which is meant to be a symbolic source of renewal and resurrection in this piece. Pose 3, for example, seems more sensual and posed rather than emotive. The other poses also lack dynamism. This can be a highly intuitive process since I’m making decisions about what symbols to include at the same time. Lady of March, however, went far easier than Lady of February did at this phase!

Thumbnails created in pen, grey markers, and white color pencil on toned paper.

Composition Mockups:
Next, I drop some of my favorite poses using stock art as stand ins on a frame template I had previously made in Photoshop. At this point, I play around with different layouts and arrangements to test how the Lady will look in a more finalized form. In the end, poses 1 and 3 are my favorites because they have clear and interesting silhouettes and she feels more connected to the water.

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